- lumber (n.)
- "timber sawn into rough planks," 1660s, Amer.Eng. (Massachusetts), earlier "disused bit of furniture; heavy, useless objects" (1552), probably from lumber (v.), perhaps influenced by Lombard, from the Italian immigrants famous as pawnbrokers and money-lenders in England (see Lombard). The evolution of sense would be because a lumber-house ("pawn shop") naturally accumulates odds and ends of furniture.
- lumber (v.)
- "to move clumsily," c.1300, lomere, probably from a Scandinavian source (cf. dial. Swed. loma "move slowly," O.N. lami "lame"), ultimately cognate with lame (adj.).